Rule 17: Penalty Areas: Your Ball in Tricky Terrain
What this is about
Rule 17 covers penalty areas: water and other tricky terrain, marked with yellow or red stakes or lines. Here's how to continue play.
What you need to do
If your ball is in a penalty area, you have these choices:
- Play it as it lies: free of penalty, if you think you can manage it.
- Stroke and distance (1 penalty stroke): play again from the spot of your previous stroke.
- Back-on-the-line relief (1 penalty stroke): find where your ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area. Draw a line from the hole through that point, extending back, and drop anywhere on that line, further from the hole.
- Lateral relief, red penalty areas only (1 penalty stroke): drop within two club-lengths of that crossing point, not nearer the hole.
So with a yellow penalty area, you don't have the lateral option.
Common mistake
Simply assuming your ball is in the water. You may only use these options if it's known or virtually certain the ball went into the penalty area. Otherwise your ball is lost and you go back to your previous stroke with a penalty stroke.
Example
You hit over a yellow penalty area and clearly see your ball go in. You take one penalty stroke and drop on the line from the hole through the crossing point, further back.
Practise this rule with real exam questions in the free app.
17.1 Options for a ball in a penalty area
17.1a When the ball is in a penalty area
Your ball is in a penalty area as soon as any part of it touches or lies within the edge. You may then play it as it lies, or take relief for one penalty stroke.
17.1b You may play the ball as it lies or take relief with penalty
If you play your ball from the penalty area, the same rules apply as in the general area. You may touch the ground or water with your club, including during a practice swing, and remove loose impediments. If you'd rather not, take relief for one penalty stroke.
17.1c Penalty relief
A player may always take relief with one penalty stroke by:
- Stroke and distance: playing the ball from the spot where the previous stroke was made
- Back-on-the-line relief: dropping the ball on a line going straight back from the hole through the point where the ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area. There's no limit to how far back the player may go.
17.1d Extra relief option for red penalty areas
In a red penalty area, marked with red stakes or lines, you have an extra option: lateral relief. You drop within two club-lengths of the point where your ball last crossed the edge, not nearer the hole. This also costs one penalty stroke.
17.2 Options after playing a ball from a penalty area
If you play from a penalty area and your ball is lost, out of bounds, or unplayable outside the penalty area, you may proceed under stroke and distance: play again from that spot in the penalty area for one penalty stroke. If you don't want to play from there, you may instead take relief outside the penalty area from the point where your original ball last crossed the edge, for a total of two penalty strokes. If your ball comes to rest in the same or another penalty area, the options in Rule 17.1 simply apply.
17.3 No relief from abnormal course conditions in a penalty area
If your ball is in a penalty area, there's no relief for abnormal course conditions, an embedded ball, or an unplayable ball. Your only option is penalty relief under Rule 17.1c, or lateral relief under Rule 17.1d in a red penalty area. Exception: for a dangerous animal, you may take free relief within the penalty area (Rule 16.2).
Practice questions about Rule 17
What is the main difference between a yellow and a red penalty area?
Answer: Red has an extra option: lateral relief within 2 club-lengths
A yellow penalty area gives two options: stroke and distance, or back-on-the-line relief. Red adds a third: lateral relief within 2 club-lengths, not nearer the hole (Rule 17.1d). Every option costs one penalty stroke.
Which color stakes mark a penalty area with lateral relief?
Answer: Red
Red stakes mark a red penalty area (lateral). Yellow stakes mark a yellow penalty area.
Your ball lies in a penalty area marked with yellow stakes. Are you allowed to take lateral relief (sideways)?
Answer: No, lateral relief is only allowed for red penalty areas
That's correct: lateral relief is only allowed from a red penalty area. From a yellow penalty area, you have two options with one penalty stroke (Rule 17.1d): stroke and distance, or back-on-the-line relief.
How do you tell the difference between a yellow and a red penalty area?
Answer: Yellow penalty areas have yellow stakes or lines, red ones have red stakes or lines
The difference is in the colour of the stakes or lines: yellow or red (Rule 17). With a red penalty area you have an extra option: lateral relief, dropping within two club-lengths of the point where the ball last crossed the edge of the penalty area. With a yellow penalty area, you don't.
Your ball ends up in a water feature marked with yellow stakes. You don't want to play it from the water. How many relief options do you have?
Answer: Two options
For a yellow penalty area, you have two relief options with one penalty stroke (Rule 17.1d): stroke and distance (again from your previous spot), or back-on-the-line relief. Lateral relief is only available for red.